Saturday, May 5, 2012

Halfway to Happy

In Plain Sight has ended. Thank you for entertaining my recent quote spree. The voice-overs from the show came to mean something to me. Their snark and their wisdom may be what I miss most about the show, even more than Mary's one-liners.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I caught the "halfway happy" reference in the final voice-over which first appeared at the end of the first episode of season four. The voice-over from season four:

"Whether it's secrets, justice or the Amazon rainforest, every one of us protects things a thousand times a day. It doesn't take a gun; for most of us, protection is as quiet and reflexive as a breath. For some, though, for knights in shining armor, the lone ranger, a boyfriend or a mom, protection can be a hard habit to break. As much as we thump the bible about the vital need to change, the fact is, we hardly ever do. We stay here, halfway to happy, in our old familiar places, with our feet stuck firmly on the ground."

And the final, perhaps even the best, voice-over of the series:

"Nobody likes letting go. From our earliest moments -- from birth ’til we’re six feet under -- our instinct is to grab, grip, cling. To a finger, a bottle, a best friend -- to a faded old racing form.

Sometimes we hold on for dear life to the very things that keep us from actually living it. But that comes with an upside. It’s the way we feel when we finally let go. The trick, I guess, is not to find a way around the curve balls life serves up, but to live with them, in halfway happy, uneasy alliance. And to search for new things to cling to and when you finally find them, to hang on just as tight.

And around and around we go. Holding on until the time comes to say goodbye. And, like it or not, ready or not, you have to accept one universal truth: Life is messy. Always and for all of us. But a wise man once said, ‘Maybe messy is what you need.’ And I think he might be right."

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About Me

I am an independent historian, a native Idahoan, an avid reader, a lifelong fan of baseball, and a Democrat. The Political Game offers progressive perspectives on current events, Idaho history & politics, and the political world President Kennedy once referred to as a "great chess game."